Welcome Back To School
This is familiar phrase to me. It always carries something along the lines of “you’ve been away and forgotten how to do real work, but now it’s go time”. It is go time again!
Work’s been cut back from four to three, to two days a week. I dropped my gender studies class to make more time for my major. I’m now enrolled in not one or two, but three study sessions outside of class.
My calculus professor warned us of un upcoming midterm exam. Why so early in the semester, not even a month after classes have begun? It’s because he wants to weed out the weak. “Many of you will not do well on this exam, and that way you can drop before it affects your GPA.” I can’t vouch for the rest of my peers, but I am personally not just taking calculus II out of curiosity. It’s a critical step in the curriculum of mathematics and science at the heart of the engineering major, and it’s deeply nestled in an unsolvable tangle of pre- and co-requisites. I cannot withdraw, I cannot fail, I can has a game face.
Eventually though, this idea –actually committing to my academics– will not seem so novel to me as to warrant such redundant blogging, at least, that’s the idea.
A Teachable Moment
I was up until about four thirty this morning working on homework for my physics class. It was a healthy problem set assigned over a week ago. When I finished I slept for three hours. Now, my exhaustion is seasoned with that particular flavor of dissatisfaction with oneself that stains the mouth. Physics does not cram. My dad would call this a teachable moment.
Adding injury to insult, I managed to slam my remaining good kneecap against a corner of my metal bed frame as I tried to fling myself from under the covers to my classroom.
I arrived right as Prof. Buchholtz was beginning his lecture. The topic was, of course, how we (I) desperately needed to treat our (my) academic responsibilities as if they were our (my) profession. This is not the first time I’ve heard this, but it struck me just about square in the chest this morning. I wanted to ask for techniques to improve discipline, but I know there are no easy answers to that, or at least, none that aren’t embarrassingly obvious.
Tonight, when I get home from my other job, I am going to stick a knife into Google Reader. I am going to obliterate any trace of Minecraft in my system. I will pin a piece of paper to the wall above my desk and it will tell me at any available opportunity that
THIS OPPORTUNITY WILL NOT COME AGAIN. DO NOT FUCK UP.
Tux’d my Cr-48
As happy as I was to be in the Cr-48 pilot program, I got tired of bumping up against the limits of the Chrome OS. So I decided to follow these instructions and installed Ubuntu on my Cr-48. Now it’s a real computer!
Pro
- Can turn it over, flip the dev-mode switch, and return to Chrome OS at any time (but haven’t yet)
- Full access to local filesystem, expandable with SD card, and Dropbox integration!
- .deb packages far outweigh web apps in quality and quantity
- The joy of futzing around in a new operating system
- Can tether to my phone’s unlimited 3G connection over bluetooth
Con
- I guess I am no longer actively participating in Google’s pilot program…
- Unable to access 100mb of monthly 3G from Verizon (see tethering)
- The joy of fixing what I break when I futz around with a new operating system
With the Cr-48 made so much more capable, I feel better leaving my five year old MacBook Pro at home to act as a media server and general heavy-lifter.
I can certainly understand the niche for Chrome OS, I just don’t live there.
3185 Photos
I took nearly 1,500 photos in 2009, and over 3,000 in 2010. I’m going to shoot for doubling that figure again in 2011.
Cameras at my disposal:
- Canon G11: Always in the bag, almost pocketable
- iPhone 3GS: Always in the pocket, almost acceptable
- Canon A-1E: 35mm is always fun, but usually left home alone
- Polaroid 600 Land Camera: No film :(
Semi-Transparent Dome of Cups
Lisa, Dylan & I are building a chandelier for the entranceway out of paper and plastic cups. In the process I’ve learned that you can’t construct a perfect dome out of hexagons alone. Also, it can be very difficult to find the specific style of paper cup you want, and sometimes you just need to buy the plastic ones instead.
Good news, Xue and I got engaged!
The idea wasn't completely new to either of us, but I got to surprise her and pop the question over dinner the day after New Year's. It went something like this:
Scene: Thai restaurant in Boston. The table is crowded with dishes and we have perhaps eaten too much food.
X: I feel like I'm going to die.
J: What do you want to do before you die?
X: Get my PhD, and marry you.
J: Really?
X: Yeah, assuming I don't drop out or anything.
J: No, I mean, do you really want to marry me?
X: Yes, of course.
J: Really?
X: Yes.
J: Really?
X: Yes?
J: Okay, then I should give you this.
I reached into my coat pocket and pulled out a small wooden box. Xue opened it and found a simple silver ring that I made for her. I took the opportunity to go down on one knee, but I don't think we made a scene.
We came home to Tristan & Marianna's place where we'd been staying, and they poured us crystal glasses of very good champagne. There was a lot of smiling, and laughing, and some photos were taken. Then, as the night came to an end, we spent a few hours informing the internet and our famblies.
New Year, New Blog
I’ve moved my blog back to WordPress, again, partly because I was bored and partly because I was getting frustrated with Tumblr. Things are pretty sparse here, and they just might stay that way. If you’re looking to read any of my posts from the past five years, they’re all here.
I like to write, really I do, but sometimes it’s hard for me to stand the sound of my own voice, as it were. It’s just like playing music. Sometimes it feels great, and sometimes there’s nothing you can do but sound like shit. Novelty plays a big part; I think having been absent for a little while will make it easier to write, until I need to quit again.
My life has seasons, and sometimes there are extended winters when I can’t really stand the stuff I make. Right now it feels like spring.